Republicans in the Illinois General Assembly, including State Representative Mike Marron, are criticizing a bill that would take away expanded tax deductions for businesses that participated in the federal CARES program.
The bill failed to pass during the lame duck session two weeks ago, but Governor J.B. Pritzker says he thinks it will pass during the regular session this spring.
Marron said during a virtual news conference last week that the state should not try to create more financial hardships for business owners, when it was the state that forced businesses to reduce services or close during the first part of the pandemic.
“It’s unbelievable to me that we are now going to decry the budget deficit and call for fiscal responsibility on the backs of these small business owners who have had their lives upended by this governor,” he explained.
Pritzker initially estimated that the bill would preserve $500 million in state revenue, but that figure increased to $1 billion by the time it came up for a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives in the early morning of January 13th.
Democratic lawmakers who supported the measure argue it is needed to prevent state revenues from shrinking by more than $500 million, thereby increasing the state’s $3.9 billion budget deficit.
Pritzker says decoupling is “a fairly standard movement” and described the provisions as a massive tax decrease for some of the largest businesses. He also is accusing Republicans in the Legislature of failing to propose a plan to balance the budget.
